AMMAN, 30 April 2007 — The Arab Bank Group, one of the Arab world’s largest banking establishments, said yesterday that it had increased its first quarter profits by 24.6 percent, to $187.1 million from $150.2 million in the same period of 2006. The chairman of the board of directors and CEO of the Arab Bank, Abdul Hamid Shoman, said that the group’s assets as of March 2007 increased by 13.7 percent to $33.3 billion from $29.3 billion at the end of March 2006. The Arab Bank Group operates in more than 35 countries across the globe.